Word: damascus
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Will history one day point to a shy, soft-spoken French academic as the key to the return of Syria as a respected member of the international community? The next several days could provide an answer, as Damascus ups its efforts to help Paris gain the freedom of Clotilde Reiss, 24, an assistant teacher of French at Isfahan University, who has been detained in Iran since July 1 on charges of espionage...
...terrorism want to play do-gooder for a Western power? In large part to repay Sarkozy for the French leader's decision to reach out to Assad in 2008 with an invitation to France's Bastille Day events. Late last year, Sarkozy renewed that embrace with a visit to Damascus, and in January he sought Assad's help in ending the fighting in Gaza...
...reaching out to Syria - especially since Barack Obama's election - Assad is aware Sarkozy was the first Western leader to truly see him as an ally and even a friend," says a French diplomat who asked not to be named. Sarkozy's trust, he adds, was especially appreciated by Damascus given the hatred former French President Jacques Chirac reserved for Assad - whom he blamed for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister and Chirac intimate Rafiq Hariri. "There's some genuine gratitude at work right now," the diplomat says. (Read "Did Hizballah Kill Rafiq Hariri...
...Perhaps, but there's also a good deal of Syrian pragmatism in Damascus' actions - especially in seeking to normalize its position in the international community. Katerina Dalacoura, an international-relations lecturer at the London School of Economics, says that while Damascus is keen to end its pariah status once and for all, it still needs to balance a lot of conflicting regional relationships in doing so. "Syria's improved relations with France, as well as the U.S., is in many ways aimed at allowing it to operate more freely in the complex Middle Eastern system that requires having influential Western...
...wander round the Jewish quarter, then smoke shisha at the Al Noufara Café, tel: (963-11) 943 9535, or go to Bakdash, tel: (963-11) 221 2870, and try Syria's most famous ice cream. In the evening, dine at Naranj, tel: (963-11) 541 3444, one of Damascus' most sophisticated eateries. Feel like an Ottoman prince as you savor the tastes of a city you already want to return...